


Nowhere to go but up

by YouthRhapsody



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Anal Sex, And gueira is baby, Cults, Friends to Lovers, Homelessness, M/M, Masturbation, Meis is a mom friend, Mutual Pining, Origin Story, Slow Burn, perfect combo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:00:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22458388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YouthRhapsody/pseuds/YouthRhapsody
Summary: The world is burning. Fluroescent infernos stretch across every corner of planet earth, driving humanity against itself. During the great world blaze, hordes of burnish experience their awakening.In the chaos of it all- Gueira and Meis come to find one another, and begin their journey to a place that they can call home.
Relationships: Gueira/Meis (Promare)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 25





	1. 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LOTS OF WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER IN PARTICULAR-
> 
> The rest of this fic will not be so dark, but in order for Gueira and Meis' powers to be awakened during traumatic events. I had to write them experiencing said events! So please be mindful that this chapter contains slurs, alcohol abuse, domestic violence, gun violence, aaaand implied child abuse.
> 
> I'll leave a quick summary of this chapter down below, and it should keep you up to speed if you want to skip to the sweet parts that follow!

The world is burning. 

Just a year prior, a phenomenon had begun to ripple throughout every corner of the planet. Select human beings had begun to spit fire from their bodies, becoming one with brilliant neon flames. Those who the fire chose were often individuals who were hurt in some way. Pressed down by the world, they found themselves in need of something to fill the cracks in their souls. The fire fills these chosen ones to the brim, and they ooze all of their rage toward the earth that had broken them in the first place. 

Magenta and cyan tornadoes burn, the skies fill with purple ash l, and the screams of man and newly incarnated burnish echo across the earth.

But that's all just something playing on the TV. It wasn't a part of right here and right now, only background noise in the blazing clamor.

A half eaten dinner and a spilt and split open beer bottle lie cold on the end of a coffee table, booze slowly drying into the carpet. A foot steps into it, making an ignored squelch as the body attached to it stumbles. 

"I've had enuffa you, you little whore!" Words fall slurred from a stumbling man, his shirt half torn apart and his belt gripped in white knuckles. 

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, it was an accident-" A voice stammers, backing into a cabinet of stained memories. 

"Shaddup. I'm gonna teach you a lesson, once and for all, you stupid bitch-"

"Don't touch her!"

There's the thump of feet coming down the stairs, rushing to the scene as it unfolds. The staggering man lurches toward the source of the shout, waving his leather strap in a rage. 

"Would you shut your goddamn trap?! I'm sick of both of ya, always treating me like garbage when I built this house!"

"You're not even my real father!" The younger voice belts. 

"That's because your little slut mommy couldn't figure out which dickhead knocked her up, so she threw you on me, you ungrateful little bastard!" He approaches the youth, finger drawn to a hard point. "I took the blame, and I gave up my life to raise your stupid ass!"

"That's it, I'm calling the cops-!" The young man whips out his phone, pressing the emergency dial. 

"They'll be dragging you outta here in a body bag, cocksucker!" He raises his belt, and brings it down on the younger man. 

The youth cries out, landing on his back. He sends a kick flying upwards, and grunts as his mother screams a wailing shriek of horror. 

"Run, mom!" He shouts. 

"I'll kill you! I'll cut off your heads and shit down your miserable little necks!"

"Gueira!" The woman screams as a belt is tied around her son's throat. 

The young man gasps, struggling for air as his windpipe is snapped closed. "Get outta here mom...!"

Gueira feels his heartbeat pick up. This would be the moment that he died. But maybe, after so much suffering, his mother could finally be free. He wants to make sure that she is set free. 

"Go, run...!"

His vision starts to blur. He'll die protecting her. It's ok. 

"Mom..."

He doesn't want to die. 

'If you don't want to die here, then burn.'

Well, this must be it, Gueira thinks as each nanosecond drags on. He is losing oxygen in his brain, and his mind is escaping him. 

'Burn, and you'll live.'

He wants to live. 

'Burn.'

He wants to burn. 

Gueira takes a deep breath. Something envelops him. It holds him close, and he wonders if it is his mother. It feels like that- as if he is so tiny, held up to her chest- and now nothing could ever hurt him. It's blinding and bright and pink, and it bursts from his body in psychedelic pyramids that rattle around in his eyeballs. 

He blinks, and exhales. 

The man lies before him, and his childhood home sits in fluorescent flames, all burning. 

Gueira looks down to his palms. They too, were ablaze, but he feels nothing but a tingle.

'Thank you. Keep burning, and you'll keep living. '

The voice goes quiet. Gueira pulls himself to his feet, slack. "I'm... A burnish?" He questions. Then, he laughs, and stomps on the already burnt stomach of the man who had attacked him and his mother. "See that you old bastard?! I'm a burnish, and I'll turn you into a black little pile of bones! You'll never touch mom again-"

He's shoved back. 

"Get out." 

His mother leans over the wounded man, her eyes drawn wide as he'd ever seen them. Gueira's manic grin falls away, and he shakes his head. 

"I'm protecting you, mom. These fires only choose people when they need them, and I needed them to protect you! Everything's gonna be alright now, we don't have to live with him anymore!"

"At least he's human!" His mother howls, cradling the scorched man's body. She throws the belt at him, screaming once more. "Get out!"

Gueira feels tears jump out of his eyes. "Mom, what are you talking about-"

"Get away from me you freak! I never wanted you in the first place, just get out of my life and leave me alone you filthy fucking demon!"

Gueira feels his heart drop.

"Mom..." 

She takes off her shoe, and throws it at him. Gueira just barely dodges. He stumbles, and he falls. Then, in spite of his crumbling heart, he runs. 

Out of the door and into the street, his tears are made of icy cyan flame as he takes off in the general direction of nowhere. He skips past the lights and the concrete, into the woods. How long would it take? When would they find him and take him away? Burnish who were arrested didn't ever come back. 

"I don't wanna die... I don't wanna die like this!" He stumbles into a patch of mud, as if the hounds of hell themselves barked just beyond the trees. "I just got away, I'm gonna be free, I'm finally gonna be free! I just have... I have to find somewhere to go...!"

'Keep burning. I'll protect you.'

Gueira falls to his knees. "Who are you?! Get out of my head!"

'I am the fire. Feed me, and I will keep you alive.'

"I don't want you to protect me, I..." He sobs. "I want my mom, my mom hates me...!" He buries his face into the mud. He wails, immobilized by the pain in his now burning heart. He falls into the soppy wet earth, and just cries like the lost toddler he'd never been allowed to be. 

There is a pink glow under his chest. The earth dries, mud becoming soft earth. The filth stuck to him crumbles, and gently urges him up. Gueira hiccoughs. "...Thank you, whatever you are." He stands on wobbly legs, and looks to the full moon. He decides to follow it, having nothing else to go off of but its aura. 

So he drags on, broken, but the cracks of him filled by this strange new friend that had thrust itself upon him. Low in the mud that dries beneath his every footstep, Gueira marches forward, eluding the beasts of hell thanks to his guardian angel. 

He tells himself that there is nowhere to go but up from here. 

...

'You can take a ride on my big green tractor-'

A country song, one of many that quietly blanket the convenience store in an endless, lulling loop, drifts from the speakers scattered about the ceiling. Shiny bags of sweets and snacks line the store, along with a donut case with one lone pastry left to grow stale, and two walls of any flavor soda or booze one could desire on a small budget. This, along with the lone man who occupies the register, haloed by Marlboros. 

The droning guitar is lost on his ears- if it weren’t, then he surely would have lost his mind by now. On a weekday night spent in the middle of the graveyard hours, there isn’t much else to listen to but thoughts. What was the weather going to be like on tuesday? Had they finished construction on the intersection by his apartment yet? What was the name of that guy who co-starred in a movie he’d seen an ad for...?

“Can I get a pack of reds?”

The cashier snaps out of his banjo-induced trance, and straightens his back. “Sure, anything else?” He turns around, reaching for the familiar pack of cigarettes. The man across from him doesn’t look the type usually around this area. Dressed in dark and heavy clothes, hunched over and already looking to itch for a cigarette. 

“That’s it.” He grumbles. It’s understandable- most anyone would be irate at this time of the night. And so, there’s a small beep as the package is rung up. 

“That’ll be 7.58.” He holds the pack in his hands, and watches as the customer rummages about his pockets. He has a few crumpled up ones in a fist, and his free hand seems to find nothing but lint. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” The cashier can hear a hiss come not-so-beneath the man’s breath. “Hang on, lemme go look in my car.” 

“I’ll be right here.” 

There’s a monotonous bell as the door opens, sliding for the man to drift out with his crumpled bills. The man at the register doesn’t think much of it. Either he had the money in his car and just needed to find it, or he didn’t have the cash at all, and would take off. No skin off of anyone’s back. 

His ears perk up. Over the trailing country tunes and the buzz of the Icee machine, he can hear a voice. Had someone else come in? Maybe it was the guy cussing himself out for being too short on cash to buy the cigarettes that he wanted. 

“I don’t-”

“Gimme the fuckin-”

Uh oh. 

The cashier gulps, and slinks toward the front door. Peeking over the magazine stand, he looks past the neon lights and out into the parking lot. The man from before has a grip around someone. Tightly, he grabs onto a middle aged woman’s arm. She stands, utterly paralyzed as he assaults her. 

“I told you, gimme your fuckin’ cash!” He barks, rattling her smaller frame around. 

The woman curls up into a tighter ball, clutching her purse tight to her chest. “I told you, I don’t have any cash!” She shouts back, pulling away from him.

That’s when the gun comes out. 

“Then gimme whatever the fuck you got in there!” He points the pistol straight to her chin, surely bruising the poor woman in the process. He pulls at her purse, the purple faux leather stretching between them both. 

Oh no, oh no, oh no. This can’t be happening. This place already had shitty enough business- if someone were to get shot and killed here, that would be it. Not only that, but the guy might come back in and put a bullet through his skull to cover his tracks. But even if he lived, he’d lose his job. Rent had already fallen behind, and his skinny frame might have been involuntary, and he couldn’t move back in with his dad. He’d worked so hard, done so much, he isn’t going to let four dollars and fifty eight cents take that from him. 

“Get your hands off of me you motherfucker!” The woman screams, pulling back on her purse. “This is mine, get off, get off!” She starts to hit him, and this only irritates the man further. 

The pistol clicks as a finger touches its trigger, ready to send the lead within flying. 

A plastic name tag reading ‘Meis’ reflects the neon green light of the gas station’s logo as the cashier moves, lifting his hand up. It lands on metal, and grips hard. 

“Don’t.” 

The barrel is pointed at him. “You think you can tell me what to do, asshole?!” He bellows, rage directed toward Meis now. 

Welp, this is how he would die. Trying to save some lady from what he is pretty sure is a crackhead. It would be a nice article in the paper, maybe even make it on the news. At least this lady would be safe. 

He looks into the barrel, and something flashes inside of it. No... Inside of his own eyes, his mind, there is something. 

‘You don’t have to keep going like this.’ 

Whose voice was that? The woman’s? Meis blinks in slow motion. 

‘Burn, and you can keep living.’

Burn? 

It seems so easy. Burn. Just burn, let it all crumble away into fire. He closes his eyes, and can feel the boom of the gun’s trigger being pulled. He would feel a burn in his brain soon, maybe, and then it would be over. Or maybe this warmth is death. Warmth, and a glowing purple just beyond his eyelids. Ah... Dying really didn’t feel that bad, at least he can be thankful for that. 

He wonders- when he opens his eyes, will he be in heaven, or hell?

From the fire around him- he is certain that it is hell. But that certainty turns to doubt as he finds that the burning is that of a familiar parking lot, and a body thrown to concrete. Hell being a burning version of his night shift job seemed pretty accurate, but he is not quite bought into that theory yet. A strange pink glow joins the electric one of the store’s sign, and his nametag drips in a melted goop from his shirt. 

“Oh my god... You’re one of them fire people, aren’t you? What the hell are you doing here?” The woman backs away from him, dropping her purse. 

“A... Burnish, you mean?” Meis looks around him. “I guess so.” He breathes. It made sense. After all, he kinda had flames coming out of his hands. It didn’t hurt, either. It actually... Felt kinda nice. 

There’s a metallic clink as the woman picks up the gun, dragging it against the concrete. Meis blinks as she points it at him. 

‘I’ll protect you.’ That voice tells him again. ‘Just burn for me.’

“She ain’t gonna shoot me.” Meis sighs. 

“The hell I won’t!” The woman cries out. “I-If I let you live, you’ll burn this whole town to the ground!” 

“Okay then, I’ll leave.” 

“Huh...?” She lowers the pistol an inch. 

“I’m leaving. I’m probably fired anyway. No pun intended.” He turns around, and pulls out his work key. Turning it until the lock clicks, he steps back over the unconscious man’s body. 

His feet hit the sidewalk, and Meis just starts walking. Fuck it. Just, fuck it. This may as well happen, may as well be the straw that breaks the camel’s back on his shitty life. He’d probably be hunted down by the cops... Then they’d throw him in a cell, or vivisect him, or something terrible like that. 

‘It’ll get better. Just keep burning for me, you will feel better.’

Meis doesn’t answer the voice. It speaks from somewhere in his soul, yet it is not his own mind. But... Despite having just met this strange thing, he trusts it. If it says that things will get better, then they will. He just has to burn. He’d fallen so far down into a pit over the years- into a pit of an apartment, a neighborhood, a city. Now this fire inside of him had lit the way out. 

The only way to go from here is up, he supposes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary of events for those who didn't want to read the Dark Content: Gueira's burnish powers awake while defending his mother from his alcoholic father. She throws him out, and he runs off all alone. Meis in turn protects a woman from getting shot when a man attempts to mug her, and once his powers awaken, he simply walks away.
> 
> Ok! With that out of the way, I hope you enjoyed! This is going to be quite a hefty fic. I think I have around 16k written so far? So please remember to fasten your seatbelt, and enjoy the ride!


	2. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaay here is the next chapter! As Intentioned before, I have about half of this fic already finished, so I'll probably update every day or two. No major warnings for this chapter!

Running is all that Meis seems to have done since his awakening as a burnish. He'd made it over by a couple of states at this point, moving more or less on foot through the hot south. Things are dry, and easy to burn, and this seems to make the fire happy.

He isn't too up-to-date with the other burnish. The fire is near to impossible to ignore, and the others had converged in places to commit mass arson. This made it hard on those who could control their urges, causing them to flee the constant threat of death and imprisonment. Every once and a while he'll catch the sound of a song from the old convenience store, and choke back tears. What he wouldn't give to be dishing out snacks at three in the morning again.0

But that life, and all that came with it, sat behind him. This fire had saved his life, and rebirthed him in doing so. His name remains 'Meis', but he feels fundamentally altered. 

He crosses the Louisiana border earlier that week. Sometimes, a stranger will pick him up and give him a boost. He's never going anywhere in particular, just to the nearest gas station. Thankfully he hadn't had to employ the fire to defend him again- but he would, if it came down to that. Sometimes those who offered him a lift would give him a little cash, or buy him a little food, and move back on down the road. 

It had been a while since that had happened. After all of the time that he had spent on the road, he could probably play the national anthem on his ribcage. He still has to eat, despite being burnish. But the highway stretches out long, the moon itself seeming to sit at its end. There is nothing to eat but asphalt.

"I'm so tired." He breathes, dehydrated on top of his hunger. Meis comes to a bridge over the start of a swamp, and decides it better not to cross. Maybe he could curl up somewhere beneath it and rest for the night. 

He slips somewhere half way down, sliding in wet grass to the bottom. Meis doesn't want to get back up- but the fire makes him. He can't burn if he sits there. So the mud on his clothes goes up in smoke, and he continues to search for a place to rest. 

His burning blood runs terribly cold. In the woods, there is a light. It glows, and he is certain that someone is out there. 

Maybe they had something to eat?

Meis looks beneath the bridge. He could curl up there, sure. But he can't be sure that he will ever wake up again if he does. 

'I'll protect you. Go, burn.' The fire whispers. 

Meis obeys, and stumbles forward. He can't burn if he's dead, so the thing in him will not be happy if he leaves this world. The light draws him on, shoes picking up mud that flakes away to dust before he steps down again. 

Through the trees and moss, there lies what can only be called a shack. Likely once the home base for a hunter or fisherman, Meis feels more likely that it had become the hideaway for some junkies. So he approaches, wondering how he will even enter the place. 'Hello fellow hobos, I am very hungry. Also, if you have weed- would you be so kind as to pass the blunt to a dying man?' Yeah, that'd work out great. He'd just have another gun in his face. 

But, he decides that he might as well be polite. Meis knocks on the door- and there is no reply. Maybe it had been left empty...? The entire structure is riddled with cracks, and he leans over to peer in through one of them. From what he can tell, the place had been left abandoned. 

"Hello?" He pushes open the door, the wood soft from the swamp's moisture. It slowly swings open, revealing a wood floor, shelves, and a single electric light. How anyone had gotten electricity out here, he has no idea. 

His eyes scan the inside more, and someone had certainly been living here. There are some crumpled blankets and papers, and...

Oh god in heaven, someone had left a pack of oreos. His hands shake, and he wonders if there are even any even in the container. He lifts back the foil, and there's still a good amount of the treats still left. Without much thought, he tears into them. There's absolutely nothing but sugar going down his throat, but it's calories, food, something to stave off death for just a little longer.

He puts his hand on the last one- and stops. Whoever these belonged to, they would be pissed when they found out that their stash had been taken. May as well do the courtesy of leaving the last one. 

Meis takes the bit of change that he has in his pocket out, and holds it. It probably isn't enough for a replacement, but it's something. He sets it on top of the empty packaging, and sighs. But his belly finally has something in it- and he is so very tired from the journey. 

Meis curls up, and sets his head on the pile of cloth in the corner. It's the fastest he's fallen asleep in a long time. 

...

A whistling echoes off of the swamp's waters, the wet stamping of feet in mud acting as a beat. Birds and salamanders skitter out of the noisy thing's path. 

"I'm eatin' good tonight!" Gueira licks his lips. He holds up a bucket of crawfish, the bottom full of the wiggling crustaceans. His fingers are sore from the pinches that they'd given him, but he hadn't lost one yet. 

He keeps whistling, heading for the light that signalled home. He'd come a long way, but swamps were swamps, and they were too familiar to leave. He'd travelled mostly out of the sight of other people for months since his awakening. He'd managed to pick up a bit of useful garbage on his journey- and thankfully, he knew how to fish. 

There's a light through the woods that reveals the comfort of his ramshackle little house. He notices the crack in the door, and frowns. Hopefully another raccoon hadn't gotten in. The little bastards had to learn their lesson- if they took his food, they'd BE his food. He perks an ear up, listening for the telltale scritch of a varmint. Nothing. The wind must have opened the door. 

His bucket in one hand, Gueira opens the door. 

There's a clunk as he drops it, and the crawfish begin to scuttle all across the wooden floor. 

"Mm..." Meis opens his eyes.

"Who the hell are you?!" Gueira points at the sleeping individual. With their long, brittle hair and emaciated shape, he can't determine if they are a man or a woman. 

Meis blinks, and stumbles back up to his feet. "I'm sorry, I needed somewhere to stay-" 

"This is my shack! I don't need some homeless vagrant stealing it! I've got enough issues!" Gueira shoos the other man, stomping towards him as if he really were an enemy possum. 

"Vagrant?!" Meis turns up his lip. "What the hell are you?! You live in a moldy two by four in the middle of a bog!"

Gueira slaps the wall. "It's home! And it's mine, now-!" His foot accidentally kicks the box of oreos, sending change flying along with the scampering crawfish. "You bastard! Did you eat my fucking oreos?! I spent three days worth of change on those!"

"I was hungry, okay?! I didn't eat all of them, and if I slept under the bridge I was going to die!" Meis backs up from Gueira's violent shooing, too weak to properly defend himself. It's too dangerous to use his fire, this guy could turn him in. 

But Gueira stops, and looks down at the foil packaging. He looks inside, and finds one cookie still left, along with a smattering of greened pennies. 

"What's your name?" The redhead asks, his voice having dropped to a softer tone. 

The other man gulps. "I'm Meis."

"Meis." Gueira nods. "The name's Gueira. Sorry for flipping out on you. "

The thin man blinks, and cocks his head to the side. "...I stole your stuff and slept in your house, I'd be pissed too, if I were you."

"I had half a mind to kick your ass, but you're alright." Gueira turns back to him. "Any man who leaves the last cookie for someone else is a good man."

Meis manages to crack half of a smile. "...Is that your judgement of character?" He asks.

"Yes." Gueira nods with absolute resolution. "Now help me pick up these crawdads, and I'll let you eat some of them, too." 

One of the creatures finds its way onto Meis' foot. He bends over to pick it up, and shouts when it clamps down on his finger with its claws. 

"Pick them up by the middle." Gueira tells him, tossing one back into the bucket. "That way they can't getcha."

"Right." Meis shakes the creature off, then holds it by the center. It's left to hopelessly wiggle- and while he feels a little bad for it, he catches himself salivating at the thought of eating meat. 

So, in what is likely the most awkward game of pick up sticks ever, each critter finds it way back into Gueira's dented pail. The redhead licks his lips, and steps out of the door. There's a small fire pit that Meis had overlooked, filled with ash and a half burnt log. Following him out of the door, he watches the other man add driftwood to the pile. 

He crouches down, and stops. 

"Meis... You've got a reason for being out in these woods, right?" 

"Hm?" Meis cocks a brow, and turns away. "Yeah. Guess I do."

"So do I." Gueira turns to him, looking up from the ground. "Whatever secrets you've got, I'll keep em'. But you keep this to yourself, alright?"

"It's the least I can do to repay you." Meis tells him. 

"Fair enough."

There's a familiar sparking sound. Gueira holds out his hand, a tiny blue flame extending from his finger. Meis lets out an audible gasp. In disbelief, he watches as Gueira lights a twig ablaze, setting it beneath the rest of the wood in the pit.

"... If I just light a little bit with my flame, then the fire will naturally turn orange again. If someone from the highway saw a pink flame, they'd know that a burnish is living down here. They'd probably call the cops, or just take matters into their own hands and put a bullet in my brain themselves." Gueira mutters as the fire begins to grow, transforming from a pink flare and into a mild orange blaze. 

Meis takes a deep breath, and squats down next to him. He holds out his hand- and a flame pops out from his palm. "I can relate."

"Ack-!" Gueira jumps. "You're like me?!" He calms, and blinks. "You're the only other one I've met..."

"Same here. From what I know, all of the other burnish have been captured, or they're out terrorizing regular people." Meis urges the flame to cease, but Gueira stops him. It's abrupt- he takes Meis' hand, holding him by his bony wrist. Then, he calls forth his own flame. In a silent gesture, he mixes his own fire with Meis'. 

It's a very odd gesture, and one that feels incredibly intimate to be doing with a guy that he'd known for a grand total of five minutes. But his fire seems to giggle with absolute glee, making friends with the other flame. 

"Mm." Gueira pulls his hand away, and nods with a particularly catlike grin. "I think I can trust you, Meis. Now watch this-" He pulls out his hand again, and breathes. Something appears in his palm. It's a solid black shape of some sort- incredibly sharp, and resembling some kind of abstract dagger. 

Gueira spins the object around in his palm. "A few months ago I got my leg caught in a snare that a hunter had set up. I needed a knife- and the fire made this for me. I've been able to make little things out of it ever since."

Meis frowns. "Can't it make me a pizza?"

"Nah, it's mostly anything you could make from metal. I've gotten a button, some tacks, and a hammer, but I'm working on bigger things." Gueira pulls one of the crawfish out of the bucket, and pins its head to a rock. "Sorry little guy." He brings the dagger down, dispatching the little creature in an instant. Meis watches him in hungry silence, trying to hide his growling belly as the other man shoves the crustaceans between a split branch. He places them over the fire, and they squeak and sizzle as they cook. 

"So, where you from?" Gueira asks. 

"Dallas." Meis tells him. The fire crackles, and something feels homey about the sound. 

"Miami. I used to go out in the swamps when I was a kid though- that's where I learned how to cook whatever I could catch." The redhead rubs the back of his head. "Guess it came in handy."

"It did." Meis nods his head. "There's not much to hunt in the city. I've been relying on strangers to help me, I'm lucky that nobody has figured out what I am. I just walked until... I ended up right here." 

"Ah, same. If I got a job somewhere, then I'd probably get turned in." Gueira laughs. "Because a starving guy and a hobo like me are real threats to society, right?" 

"Yeah. The worst." Meis rolls his eyes.

Gueira pulls back the stick, and reaches into his pocket. "Annnd, the magic spice!" He pulls out a dingy can of old bay, and sprinkles it on the red shells. "Take your pick, my scrawny amigo. You need it more than I do."

Meis furrows his brow. "...You sure? You caught these." 

"Go on and eat before you die on me. I don't need a murder charge on top of everything." Gueira thrusts the stick in his face. 

"...Thanks." Meis reaches out, taking the nearest one to him. He looks at it, and can hear Gueira laugh.

"Here's how you eat it." The other man removes one of the creatures and takes it into his own hand. He grabs the thing by its head, then its tail, and pulls them both apart. "You just rip it in half, and squeeze on the tail to get the rest of the shell off." He pops the hard exterior off to reveal the scrap of meat that the animal's body had given. "Then you gotta suck the brains out. I know it sounds weird, but it's some good shit!" He gives a loud slurp, sucking the inside of the crawfish's head out.

Meis shudders at the last bit, but figures that food is food, right now. So he pops open the shell as he'd been shown, and takes a bite of the meat. It's tough and it's gamey, but he feels like a king from the first bite in. 

"There! Eat as much as you want, there's more of them under every rock in this swamp!" Gueira shoves another into his hand.

Meis blinks, and feels his ears grow hot. "...Thank you."

"No problem." Gueira snaps another in half, and slurps from the head. 

They eat, slurping joining the pops of the fire as they share a meal. Meis actually feels full for the first time in... Hell, maybe for the first time in years. He hadn't exactly been subsisting on anything more than ramen noodles, black coffee, and gummy vitamins beforehand. 

"Aah, I'm stuffed!" Gueira leans back and pats his belly. "Wait here a sec-" He scoops himself up, and steps back into the shack. After a bit of rummaging around, he returns out into the night with the oreo pack in his hands. "I hope you saved room for dessert!"

Meis cocks his head to the side, hands in his lap as he slumps forward. Gueira sits down next to him, and fishes the last cookie from its container. Placing it in both hands, he snaps the little treat into two pieces. 

"Here you go." He offers one side to Meis, holding it out for him to take. 

Meis furrows his brow. "I saved this for you."

"Yeah, and I'm gonna share it." Gueira holds it out further, beckoning for him to take it. He stops, and gives a confused hum. "What are you crying for? It's just a cookie. "

Meis sniffles, and rubs his eyes. "You don't have to be so kind to me. I'm a total stranger- one whole stole from you, on top of everything. Why are you being so nice to me?"

Gueira sighs, and sets the oreo piece on Meis' lap. "We're the same." He states, holding his fire out in one hand. "We've both been running away from it all. From the cops, from the other burnish, from whatever it is that we left behind... I could feel it when I mixed my fire with yours. We're like brothers. We have to look after each other." 

Meis hums. He recalls the feeling of a gentle warmth and familiarity- like a calming hug. 

Gueira reaches out, and wipes away more of his tears. "How about you stay here for a bit, Meis? I can tell that summer is right around the corner. We can live here for a while." 

Meis sniffs again, and chomps down on the oreo. "I'd love that!" He states with the cookie half in his mouth. "I'll look after you too."

"Great! It's settled, we're roomies!" Gueira pops his half in two, and licks the creme from its center. 

Meis chuckles his last tear away. "I guess you could say we're shacked up."

Gueira punches his arm playfully, and cackles. "I knew I liked you for a reason!"

They laugh together, and when the night grows deep, Gueira offers him a blanket from his makeshift nest. They sleep on the floor side by side, and Meis never would have thought that he would go to bed with a warm sheet and a full belly. He listens to the cicadas through the shack's thin walls, and finds some rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! If you're liking it so far, lemme know what you think!


	3. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaay here is more! I am in a major writing binge with this one lmao.
> 
> Er, no major warnings for this chapter? Maybe a very brief mention of animal death, and natural disaster.

It's hot, but they love it. The pair of wayward men thrive in the sticky humidity that may well have killed any other human after prolonged exposure. As the the bog grows hotter and wetter, it fills with creatures to make their next meal from. Gueira makes the very first order of business teaching Meis how to catch his own food- from crawfish to possums, the scrawny burnish soon becomes an expert on how to snag supper. 

In addition to their little hole in the mud, there's a small town about a mile away. Every few days they journey together to hunt for change and free condiment packets. They look poor enough, so it seems as if they come off as a couple of homeless stoners. They weren't blazing in that sense, but Meis is happier that they are thought of that way. Gueira is master of finding change. A few watering holes are littered with the coins of children, and their wishes give life to the two men.

"Dude! Is that what I think it is?!" Gueira stops half way through their trek to town one morning, pointing at an off-white rectangle cast to the side of the road. 

"It looks like... A mattress?" Meis peers into the distance. 

"Hell yeah it's a mattress!" Gueira sprints toward the object, sliding down through the weeds. "I think it's a queen, too! We're never sleeping on the floor again, babyyy!" He starts tugging the thing up out of the ditch, and Meis comes to his side to aid him. 

"God's looking out for us, I guess." He comes to heave up the other side of the bed. In just a couple of weeks his body had regained much of its strength, thanks to his new diet. So they manage to heave up the bed together, bringing it home and laying a few plastic bags beneath it to keep the bog's moisture at bay. Sleeping together is weird for the first night, but each after that is equatable to sleeping on a piece of heaven. 

It's strange how their bodies work, and neither of them are entirely aware of their own abilities. Meis finds it so strange that they can walk out into a bog, entirely shirtless, and the mosquitoes will quite literally explode upon sticking their mouths into their flesh. However, they could still get sunburn. 

They make it work, and that summer seems to drag on forever. This is their piece of paradise, and as long as they were together, then nothing on this earth or beyond could manage to hurt them. There's no worry of the police, other burnish, or anything going on in the world outside. It's just them, and their little shack in heaven.

"Hurricane Leon is beginning to develop just beyond the bahamas, and meteorologists believe that it will make landfall in the southern united states within the next week. We'll be sure to keep you updated on the status of the storm here and online- now off to you, Scott."

Meis sips from his cup of McDonald's ice water, lips drawn into a line. He looks over to Gueira, who had been caught up in pilfering the joint's salt and pepper packets. Occasionally they'd scrounge enough change for fries and split them, so the employees had yet to complain about their behavior. 

"Gueira. You hear that?" He asks. The redhead turns to him, blinking. 

"What? Another rainstorm coming?" He asks, counting out the number of ketchup packets he'd be taking. Ten was the limit, any more than that felt unfair. 

"A hurricane. Looks like a big one." Meis informs him. "It's supposed to hit in a couple days."

"Well, that's the coast for ya." Gueira shrugs. 

"Maybe we should get out of here." The black haired man states. Gueira cocks his brow mid-count on pepper. 

"I'm not done yet." He tells him. 

"No, not the restaurant." Meis shakes his head. "Out of this place. If that storm hits here, it'll be dangerous."

Gueira laughs back at the suggestion. "Psh, that storm's not gonna make it out here! Maybe it'll hit the tip of florida, then it'll die out."

"We live in a swamp, Gueira."

"And?"

"It'll flood."

"I'm not worried about it." The redhead snaps the last of the condiments into his pockets. "C'mon, let's split."

Meis adds no further comment, only picking up and taking off with Gueira. They shout a thanks to the staff, and return to the humid concrete outside. 

That night, it's turtle for dinner. Meis had actually been looking for some fish when he'd nabbed the creature, and it's a considerable feast. Their trusty can of old bay makes anything taste good. 

However, when Gueira goes to light their campfire, a flare ends up shooting from his hand. 

"Shit!" He shouts, ripping off his shirt to extinguish the neon flame. Meis watches silently, a frown coming across his features. Once the flame is out, Gueira scowls at him. "What's that look for? I don't get it perfect all the time."

"You're nervous." Meis tells him. "Your fire is acting up because you're stressed."

"Huh?" Gueira squawks. "I'm not stressed! It's a beautiful night, and we've got some good food coming, and we found a five dollar bill today. It's going great!"

"Yeah, but the water is already rising." Meis reminds him. 

Gueira's frown deepens. "That's just how it goes sometimes, it probably rained up north." He looks back to Meis, who cocks a brow at him. "Like we even have anywhere to go. We can't just leave here Meis, we're dead meat anywhere else."

"We'll be dead fish if we stay where we are." Meis states firmly. 

"Now is not the time for your jokes! I found this place after months of dragging myself through the swamp, and you did too. You believe in God and all that, right? Well if he is real, then he obviously made this place for us, and it's where we're supposed to be!"

"Do you honestly believe that we can just stay here forever?" Meis asks, leaning forward. 

Gueira grumbles. "No, of course not! But somebody will find a way to stop all of this burnish stuff eventually! Then we won't have to hide anymore, it's just until all of this blows over."

"That could take decades, Gueira!" Meis reminds him. "God may very well be using this storm as a way to tell me and you that it's time to move on. This isn't where we're meant to stay-"

"It's home, and I'm not leaving!" Gueira barks. "I'm staying here, even if it means I die. I don't... I can't go back out there."

Meis sighs. "We have to."

"You go wherever you want. I'm not leaving." Gueira plops himself down onto the ground, and sits with a pout. Meis pulls out the turtle, and silently thanks it for the meal. 

"There is a place I'm meant to be. It's with you." He tells the other man, and he only earns a huff. 

...

Meis wakes to a terrifying rumble. Immediately, his heart sinks into his belly. Outside, the trees look like they've been flipped sideways- and rain pelts the roof, pouring in onto the floor.

"Gueira." He hisses. "Gueira, wake up."

"Mmn... What's that noise? There a semi stuck out on the highway?" The redhead sits up, sleepily rubbing his eye. Once he opens them, Meis can see the 'uh oh' in his eyes.

The dark haired man stands. "We can't stay here, the wind's going to take this place down." 

"Eh, it's seen worse." Gueira flops back over and tugs a sheet over himself. As if on cue, a board flies away from the roof. 

"Gueira!" Meis calls out, shaking him again. "We have to go."

"'M not leaving." Gueira pouts. 

Meis gulps. He listens to the storm outside. He needs help. 

'Burn. You will be alright." 

What did the fire mean, burn?! What would that solve at a time like this? 

'Burn, burn hotter!' It breathes, and Meis can feel his stomach light up with heat. He is burning from the inside- his very being is alight, and he can't see it, but there is a flame. 

He pulls Gueira off of the bed and yanks him to his feet. The redhead growls at him, and shakes him off. "What the fuck is your problem?! Go ahead and leave, I'm staying here! I don't care if I die, just let me stay!"

"You fed me when I was starving, and you gave me a roof when I had nowhere else to go! I'm not going to let you throw your life away when you saved mine!" Meis shouts at him over the moaning storm. 

"It doesn't matter if I live or die! I don't have anything in this world but this stupid shed, if I leave here, then I don't have anything! I might as well die, nobody would even care!"

Meis grabs a hold of him. "I care, Gueira. I don't want you to die!" He practically screams. "We're meant to be together! It's like you told me when we met- we're brothers, and we have to look out for each other! You're all I have, don't take it away from me."

Gueira tears up, face drawn into a miserable sob. "I'm scared to go back out there." 

"It's going to be okay. My fire will protect you." Meis whispers. "Get your shoes on. We can go into town- if nobody is there, then we can break through one of the windows and take shelter. We're better off than out here. "

"Right!" Gueira jumps into his shoes, and whips on his jacket. 

No sooner have they left their home, their sweet paradise made of moldy wood, that it crumbles beneath the torrential wind. 

"Aah-!" Gueira gasps. "It's gone... Home's gone, where are we supposed to go?"

"We'll find a place- now let's get moving!" Meis tugs him along. He runs through the waters that had once been solid ground. He burns, lighting his legs on fire to turn the torrent into steam for easier passage. 

When they come out of the bog and up to the bridge, water is already flowing over its center. The wind presses right at them, threatening to send the pair flying. 

"Hold on to the guard rail with one hand, and hold on to me with the other!" Meis shouts back. Gueira nods, and if he says something, Meis can't hear it. 

They hold on to the railing, trudging and burning through the water. Even their flames do little to ease the journey, and it is the hardest mile either of them have ever walked. The golden arches sign comes up over the horizon, and each of them feel relief. 

"It's just a little farther, we'll make it." Meis promises. He says this as the guard rail is fast disappearing to the point where there is little to hold on to, and the wind and rain simply don't let up. 

"Okay!" Gueira shouts back. 

They march forward, making it to the end of the bridge. By now, much of the town is beneath the water, and Meis' hope of taking shelter there is dashed. With nowhere else to go, he makes a new plan. 

"We can't go inside, the water's too high!" Meis yells. "We'll have to take our chances on a roof somewhere!" 

"I don't know how to swim!" Gueira blurts. 

"What?! You're from fucking Florida!" Meis shrieks. 

"I'm sorry!" The redhead shouts in return. "Just leave me!"

Meis gulps. He needs something to protect Gueira. There's no way he can paddle all the way over to one of the buildings and get go the rooftops without losing him along the way. 

'God, please give me what I need to protect him.' He prays internally, holding onto the other man for their lives. 

His fire bolts out of his body, and Meis can feel himself become consumed. Something leaves him- and a black cloud forms above their heads. 'Get Gueira there safe.' He thinks. The item takes shape, and crashes into the water. 

"What the- is that a boat?! You've never made anything before! It's huge!" Gueira exclaims.

"I told you, my fire will protect you! Now come here-" He lifts the other man up, lightened by the water, and shoves him into the vessel. He gets in as well, rocking side to side. Keeping this thing around is draining his energy fast. 

"Gueira- you use your fire to push us toward that building. " He points toward the flooded dollar store, and his partner nods. Gueira sits at the back of tje structure and holds his hands out. Flame erupts from him, and he burns bare oxygen, sending the vessel forward. It's a short journey across extremely choppy waters- but they make it. 

Meis pushes Gueira out first, and the boat fades into tiny sparks as they crawl to the roof. Knees weak, they both sit in the chaos, clinging to one another. 

"Meis!" Gueira calls over the storm. 

"Yeah?!" 

His hair sopping wet and his body somehow managing yo shiver, Gueira's eyes go red again. "If we don't make it out of this, I just wanna tell you-" He gulps. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me!"

"Same here, Gueira. Now hold on- we can only hope that we'll live, now." Meis pulls the other man tight to his chest, and having nothing else, they hold tightly on to one another. 

And so, the storm screeches and rages around them. Debris passes them both by, and wind snaps the trees around them and sends their broken bodies downstream. They cover their eyes when the corpses of the forest creatures who hadn't made it pass by the edge of the rooftop. The water does not rise to where they sit, and it is all a matter of hoping that the structure doesn't crumble beneath them. 

But when morning comes, it brings the sunlight, and blissful quiet. Shivering out of raw terror, the two men hold tight to each other. The waters had fallen by about a foot, but still slosh around them in a vicious swirl. 

There's a humming sound in the distance, and Meis can feel Gueira hold tighter onto him. He pets the top of his sopping wet head. "It's okay. " He murmurs, and turns his eyes to the source of the sound. Up in the air is the shape of a helicopter hovering above the damage. "Gueira-look!"

"Hm?" The redhead turns his eyes up just a bit, and gasps. Meanwhile, Meis finds his way onto both feet, and starts waving. 

"Heeey! Down here!!!" He shouts up. "Damnit." He starts to light a flare with his hands, and Gueira pulls him back down. 

"Have you lost your mind?! If they see burnish flames, they'll send the coast guard out here!" He hisses. Meis jerks his arm away. 

"We die here, or we die there- but we have a hell of a lot better chance out there!" He lights up his hands, waving them around in a neon flare. 

"Ughh, you're gonna regret that!" Gueira gulps. But in spite of himself, he stands, and starts throwing up fireballs into the air. The chopper above circles around them for a moment. They had surely been seen, but the question was: were two burnish worth saving? 

The two men peel back their flames, and the aircraft begins to descend. Scared and weak, they step back as the blades begin to blow the water in circles all around them.

"You boys need a lift?!" A man calls from inside. 

"You gonna turn us in?" Gueira shoots back. "If you're just going to lock us up for being burnish, then move back down the road!"

"Shoot, that ain't my department!" A ladder is tossed down. "My job's saving people in distress- as long as you aren't the ones causin' it, then we won't have a problem!"

"Thank you!" Meis shouts up. He corrals Gueira on first, and then follows after. Immediately, they find themselves wrapped in thin blankets. 

"You two boys look like you're in rough shape! There's been an evacuation order out for three days, you been livin' in that swamp or something?" The pilot remarks. 

"Yeah, we have." Meis tells him point blank. "We're burnish. We don't have anywhere else to go."

The co-pilot hands him a bottle of clean water. "We'll get ya fixed up, alright? Just hang on."

"Thank you..." Gueira looks on the verge of tears as he's given a bottle as well. 

"No problem. It's my job." The man nods, and hops back into the front seat. They take off, and all the two young men know to do is just grab on to each other. 

It feels like forever that they're up in the air, hovering over the immense flooding that the storm had caused. Houses and neighborhoods lie in total ruin, and massive debris runs amok about the waters. They come to a town that isn't sunken in eventually, and come to a smooth stop. They're each helped out, and on shaky legs, led to a shelter. It's the dim inside of some stadium, lined with cots and rations of food. 

Gueira shivers the entire time, clinging to Meis. "...Do you think they can tell? We should get out of here before they try to kill us." He whispers beneath the buzz of other voices. 

Meis pats his head again. "No, they can't tell. Let's rest." He coos back. 

They're each given a cot with no questions asked. So long as they were abandoned, they were allowed room to stay from the perils outside. It feels lonely, not sharing a bed as they had for weeks now, but they still remain side by side. 

The day dies down- and night comes, bring it with it quiet peace amongst those seeking safety in this place.

"We made it." Meis whispers to the other man. 

Gueira opens an eye, too nervous to sleep it seemed, and manages a grin. "We did."

"We'll find somewhere to go. As long as we stick together, it'll be okay. Right?" Meis smiles back at him. 

"Yeah." 

"Get some sleep. We'll hit the road in the morning. " Meis reaches out and pats his shoulder- but it seemed that he'd already been left for dreamland. 

...

They wake before dawn, when most of the other refugees still slumber. They graciously take one of the free muffins, along with the shock blankets that they had been given, and they leave just as soon as they had come. 

They walk toward the dawn as it rises, admiring the sweet taste of blueberries in their breakfast. "Where do we go?" Gueira asks. "Before, I just walked until I found that place."

"Why not do that again?" Meis suggests. "Let's go north, but stick to the riverbank. That way we won't have to worry about food." 

"Sounds like a good enough plan to me." Gueira finishes his muffin, and shoves the wrapper in his pocket.

So they travel together, nothing on their backs but the flames that guide them to keep living.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *end credits roll and rock you like a hurricane plays*
> 
> Lmfao I hope you liked! The boyes are back on the run... Where will they go next? Stay tuned to find out
> 
> (And leave a comment or kudos, it is much appreciated 💞)


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